Connectors designed for avionics, military, and other high performance applications, have recently included contacts with circuit components. For example, contacts have been used which include Zener diodes or metal oxide varistors (MOV'S) for dissipating to ground, high energy pulses that may be induced on the contact. Other contacts have been designed with filters such as pi filters (an inductor between two capacitors) that block signals above a predetermined frequency such as high frequency noise. Although a connector user can specify to the manufacturer the particular type of connector he requires, specifying which type of component contacts lie at particular locations, this makes it difficult for the user to try different configurations and requires the manufacture to custom make each different type of connector. If the customer, or user, could easily produce his own connector from supplied parts, this could reduce the manufacturing costs and increase the ability of the user to modify his own connector.
Ground planes currently used in connectors to ground some of the contacts, can include a thin plating on an insulator or a sheet metal ground plane. The plated ground plane cannot carry high current surges and the plating cost is considerable. Current sheet metal ground planes are bonded to insulators to assure that the spring fingers at the outer edge of the ground plane will lie stably within a connector shell. The cost of bonding the sheet metal ground plane to an insulator adds to the cost of the connector. A ground plane and insulator assembly which could be constructed at low cost would be of value.